Hair care brand Herbal Essences has introduced a new bottle design to help visually impaired consumers. Designed by Sumaira Latif, P&G’s Special Consultant for Inclusive Design, the bottles will feature tactile indentations to differentiate shampoos and conditioners.

Latif, who is blind herself, has been with the firm for over 18 years and worked with other visually impaired consumers to create the products.

“Imagine the daily challenges, like choosing matching clothes in the morning or simply taking a shower after a long day,” Latif said. “As a blind person, you must do these things using touch rather than sight. You don’t really know which bottle the shampoo, conditioner, or soap is, you have to get creative. It was important that we invent a feature, a universally recognizable tactile feature, which would work for people who haven’t had the opportunity to learn braille.”

The shampoo bottles have been designed with four tactile vertical lines on the label, while the conditioner has two rows of dots to distinguish it.

“Making our products more accessible can improve the experience for everyone,” North American Brand Manager Lynn Hicks said.“While we designed this tactile feature specifically for the visually impaired, other, like seniors or kids, will also benefit from this feature.”

For many years, Luxury skin care brand L’Occitane also incorporated braille into the design of its products. On a visit to one of his company’s boutiques in 1996, L’Occitane en Provence founder Olivier Baussan noticed a blind woman sampling perfumes. After marveling at the intensity with which she inhaled the scents, Baussan vowed to make his company’s bath and body products more accessible to visually impaired consumers.

L’Occitane was soon adding braille labels to a few of its packages. Braille labels now can be found throughout the company’s products sold in L’Occitane’s stores worldwide.

Herbal Essences new products will be available from January 2019 in all of the brand’s North American stores.

About Nelson Régo

Nelson Régo is the owner and founder of the Cool Blind Tech website since November of 2012. Nelson launched the first show on March 14, 2013. He also directs the website as a whole, hiring staff, originating new shows, and approving all content.

Greg, Leo and Cory welcome a new crew member, Dan Mathis to the show to discuss what’s new and up-coming with the world of Google and the latest from Google IO.

First up was the newest version of Android, Internally Code Named: Macadamia Nut Cookie, which is focusing on polish and quality

It was announced that Android M should be available for Q3 2015, September of this year.

The newest version of Android will initially be Launched on most of the flagship Devices: Nexus 5, 6, 9 and player, though the Nexus 7 likely will not be supported.

Not to be out-done, Google is launching Android Pay which is coming to any devices with NFC running KitKat or above.

Android pay will allow a user to just unlock and place the device on a compatible terminal. Additionally, Android M will allow Android Pay to work with third party apps.

Along with Google Pay, Fingerprint reader support will be globally be available in Android M.

As part of the shiny new polish, Android M introduces Doze, which is a state of deep sleep where the device senses whether it has been motionless for an extended period of time and manages it’s power consumption accordingly.

Android M devices will be introducing USB-C support. USB-C connectors work regardless of which way the cable is connected and support USB 3. Additionally, USB-C connectors support higher levels of power transfer.

Continuing the new shine, Android M overhauls permissions. Apps will request permissions on an as-needed basis and are individually controllable. If needed, the possibility exists to revoke particular permissions.

Audio is not to be left out as well, with volume granularity being enhanced with extended customizability.

Chrome has been improved with site-customized tabs and tighter integration in to the OS for apps to display web content.

Last but certainly not least, On Tap, will now be hanging out in your Google Now on your home button. This feature will be an Opt-in option for privacy reasons. While we can only speculate at the possibilities as it is Not available yet in Android M betas. What is it? A feature which will automatically attempt to find information based on your current activity and the context of the content you are viewing.

Project Brillo: A stripped down version of Android intended for Internet of Things devices such as your smart lightbulb, allowing cross-platform control and communication with these devices.

And finally, the Google Session: Improving your Android app’s Accessibility: Discussed methods which developers can use to improve their apps for accessible use and provides techniques to doing this to developers. Additionally, the President of NFB appeared at the discussion.